The brain is designed to find patterns and then correlate it with the understanding of the world. This comparison is important since comparing fruit like images, sounds or feels with previous fruits eaten as food means survival. Quickly deducing that the long string hanging from the tree is actually a snake will also make for survival.
However, in today’s world it has strange consequences.
SLEEP: A leaking faucet that drips water at regular intervals will not let you sleep because your brain keeps waking up to find the pattern. However, a fan or a noise machine will enable you to sleep well since the brain gives up trying to find the pattern and drowns out all the other patterned noise.
FIREPLACE: When you look at a fire in the fireplace, it is very soothing. A warm fire warming your body obviously feels good on a cold winter day but maybe also because the brain gets tired of seeing the complicated design – cannot find the pattern – and then gives up and enjoys itself.
Just like this illustration shows that our brain tries to find patterns from what we know. So what does this mean for new science? How can we benefit from this in today’s world? Do complex decorations confuse the brain or tire the brain ? All good questions.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/patternicity-finding-meaningful-patterns/
